EPISODE 30; THE AVATAR PUZZLEMENT

Welcome to my blog which is feeling unloved.

Somewhere in a court in the UK there is an argument going on about whether it is god, or a mundane entity, which employs a vicar and therefore has the right to sack him (or her).  While I have no sympathy for that particular argument, I do have a comparable dilemma, as did the various courts that have adjudicated in the matter of Eldon Braun versus Palmer & Star’s Edge (i.e. Avatar) when Star’s Edge accused Braun of copyright and trademark infringement, unfair competition, business interference and libel.

‘The Avatar Course’  is clearly the creation of Harry Palmer, a man of great intelligence and charisma. What his real history is I don’t know but it is said that he used to be into Scientology and then found his own teaching based on his experiences and realizations as described in the book, ‘Living Deliberately’ (which, in my opinion, is typical of Harry’s writings, being remarkably lucid and elucidating in some places and confusingly opaque and unclear in others). His departure from Scientology was (rumoured to be) acrimonious and there were accusations that the new teachings were similar to the old ones. So it goes.

I did the Avatar Course in 1997, I think. I don’t remember how I came across it or what there was about it that persuaded me to spend £1200 on a 9 day course (not to mention the b&b and eating expenses). I did have money at the time and a lifelong fascination with how the mind works. No doubt I talked to John Ryan about it because he, more than anyone I’ve known, was always excited by finding out the truth of things. Given his tacit assent, I may have felt more emboldened.

I signed up with an Avatar ‘Master’ (teacher) and went off to Devon to do the course. My memory is that it was all a bit of a struggle, partly because having invested so much of oneself into the doing of the course there is a desperation to ‘get it,’ to grasp the prize that’s going to transform one’s life and to reach the journey’s end without paying attention to the scenery. The beauty of the Avatar Course, and the reason maybe I’ve treasured it, is that in Avatar your relationship with the scenery is the key.

How do I explain that?

In a rather cute way, Harry puts it like this. There are Word Lessons and there are World Lessons. (Called Knowledge by Description and Knowledge by Acquaintance by Russell or kennen and wissen in german.) Word Lessons are the understandings we have. People like me who pick up the Avatar Course books and read through them at a great rate looking for the key sentence that’s going to reveal it all, well we’re after the word lessons. World Lessons are what you actually experience. Essentially it is a simple thing, the difference between describing the taste of an apple and actually tasting it, yet in the Avatar Course it becomes crucial and is addressed constantly.

Basically the Course consists of a number of ‘mental’ exercises, or drills, and the words are there to give you enough reason to do the processes and, hopefully, to bamboozle you long enough to forget what it was you thought you should get out of doing the exercise. The majority of these drills are interactive, done with the eyes open and the world in view, rather than meditative – hence my mention of the scenery, the environment.

Anyway, back to Mr Braun and the issues at hand…The Avatar Course is expensive, as I have said. On the other hand, the rules were that if you wanted to repeat the course with the same or a different teacher, you could. And if you were dissatisfied, the money would be returned. It comes as quite a surprise that having paid so much money one is not allowed to keep the course materials and that the signing of some sort of confidentiality agreement is required. This can cause consternation, especially for those who didn’t take the opportunity to copy things down.

I progressed to the Masters Course and qualified as a teacher (another £1500). By this time I thought about 80% of the course was damn good and the rest a little incomprehensible and occasionally slightly embarrassing. The rules of Avatar were that as a teacher I was compelled to charge the full price and to pass on 10% (I think) to the Avatar Organization. I was uncomfortable with having to charge so much because although I had found the money, via inheritance, few people I knew could afford it – particularly my peers. It seemed to me that I had information that could help the lives of people I cared for and yet was being forbidden to pass it on which, to me, was immoral. I could understand, however, the desire to keep the teaching under control so that when Tom, Dick and Harriett claimed they were teaching Avatar this could be verified and guaranteed.

So I taught the course a few times and enjoyed it. Then I had one student down from London and learned it is a lot less fun teaching just the one person. I was always willing to teach the Course again but made no firm intention to do so and the years passed. Friends would say to me, ‘do your own thing; you don’t have to use Harry’s words and materials, you can just paraphrase them out of the stuff you have learned elsewhere.’

This is both untrue and true.

It is true because one reason I like Avatar is that it puts modern words to very old concepts. As I have written before, my own pet philosophy is Kashmir Shaivism. I have spent since 1977 studying shaivite sutras (pithy potent revelations about the nature of consciousness) and various commentaries written about them – time after time delving into their meanings and trying to relate them to my experience of life. The Avatar Course contains no Sanskrit, claims no lineage and argues no points, yet through doing Avatar many of these sutras, these word lessons, became revealed to me in a new light.

I would definitely say there is nothing new in the Avatar Course; everything in it can be found in Shaivism, Buddhism, Taoism, thisism and thatism, all long proceeding Avatar. I don’t doubt that I could put a course together, based on these and other materials, which might surpass Harry Palmer’s for its clarity and illustrative background sources. (And minus the embarrassing American bits, including the word ‘Avatar’ which now sounds like a computer game course and anyway hints unnecessarily of specialness.) So why not do it?

Suddenly I don’t know. I thought I did when I posed the question.

My answer would have been:

1) because I’d feel dishonest

2) because I liked the idea that a student could go elsewhere to review

3) because Eldron Braun thought he could do it and I’ve read his course and it doesn’t come together at all

4) because I don’t want to get sued by Harry Palmer.

5) because his (Harry’s) presentation of some of the exercises is much more structured, purposeful and practical than one at first realizes. To do (some of) the exercises out of order or out of context would be purposeless. Also there is something to the amount of time the student spends continuously on the course engaged with the teacher and the other students that deepens the feelings felt and adds intensity to the exploration. I don’t think dishing the techniques out every now and then would work so well.

I see that I have used up this week’s quota of verbiage. Must be time for further reflection.